700,000 without power at height of Illinois storm

A spokesman for ComEd says Monday’s strong winds and rain may have left the utility with its highest number of outages ever.

CHICAGO (AP) — A spokesman for ComEd says Monday’s strong winds and rain may have left the utility with its highest number of outages ever. ComEd spokesman Tony Hernandez says that at the peak of the outages 700,000 customers were without power. He says that would definitely make the storm one of the top three in the utility’s history and possibly the worst. The utility has asked for help from utilities in other states and now has 470 crews working to restore service to Chicago-area customers. The fast-moving storm downed trees, damaged property and slowed travel throughout the Chicago area. Airlines report delays at both O’Hare and Midway airports and more than 100 flight cancellations at O’Hare. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.